The mother of a five-year-old girl paralyzed by the enterovirus has spoken out about the hell of watching her young daughter battle the deadly illness.

Kinley Galbreath, from Hamilton, has spent the past three weeks in intensive care at Children’s of Alabama, where she remains on a ventilator paralyzed from her arms to her legs.

Her mom Kim Nichols has remained by Kinley’s side since the little girl was admitted to hospital and diagnosed with the potentially fatal respiratory illness enterovirus D-68.

Speaking exclusively to ABC 3340, the mother said: ‘As she was getting ready to doze off, she said ‘mommy, my hands are going numb’ and by that point she started to lose movement in her neck.

‘On the third day is when she lost movement from her legs down,’ Ms Nichols added. ‘The only thing she’s had control of has been her toes. And that’s what she wiggles to let me know something’s wrong. And she’ll blink her eyes for yes, and won’t blink her eyes for no.’